Isolated behind the Virginia goal with under a minute to play in a thrilling ACC Tournament final tied 13-13, Duke's Terrence Keaney saw his defender pause. Seizing the moment, the 6-foot-5, 220-pound midfielder immediately sprinted toward Cavalier netminder Tillman Johnson.
Launching himself horizontally from behind the net, Keaney stretched out to fling a one-handed shot over Johnson's shoulder, stunning the top-ranked Cavaliers and propelling No. 12 Duke to its second consecutive ACC Men's Lacrosse Tournament championship.
"We've had some big wins around here in my 12 years at Duke," Blue Devil coach Mike Pressler said. "[But] winning an ACC Tournament title, especially repeating and doing it on your home field, is incredible. I can't remember a bigger win than this one."
Tournament MVP A.J. Kincel followed up his sensational performance in Friday's 8-7 overtime victory over Maryland with a 15 saves against the Cavaliers (9-2), and Jimmy Regan scored a career-high four goals to lead Duke (7-5) to the 14-13 upset victory.
Virginia attackman John Christmas paced the Cavaliers with three goals, including two off spectacular individual efforts, but Johnson, one of the nation's most heralded goalkeepers, could not match the stellar Kincel.
"You feel like Tillman just impacts a game more than he did today," Virginia coach Dom Starsi said. "But that kid has pulled our butts out of the fire more times than once."
After falling behind 4-1 midway throughout the opening quarter, the Blue Devils responded with two nearly identical goals from 20 yards out. Regan and Dan Doty both fired balls that landed well in front of the Virginia netminder,
"When we scouted the goalie out, we knew that high bouncers were going to go in," Regan said.
A second line midfielder, Regan proved instrumental in keeping the Blue Devils even with the Cavaliers. With the two sides alternating scores, Virginia refused to surrender the advantage, and after Brendan Mohler's goal with 3:36 remaining in the third quarter extended the Cavalier lead to two, it appeared as though Virginia might pull away entirely.
Duke captain Kevin Cassese, however, brought the Blue Devils back with a Herculean individual effort. After winning a face-off with the Blue Devils' trailing 10-8, the junior streaked down the field, fought off two defensemen and then with shear brute force, muscled a one-handed shot past Johnson.
Cassese's tenacity also drew a slashing penalty, and just 24 seconds later teammate Dan Chemotti converted the extra-man opportunity, tying the contest at 10-10.
"Those are the kind of things that win games," Starsia said. "You give credit to Kevin. He's a big-time player."
In fairness to both teams, Sunday's thrilling tournament final featured outstanding individual efforts all over the field. Duke and Virginia continually played each other man-for-man in all four quarters, and the intense individual battles made for outstanding lacrosse.
"Virginia always thinks that they have the best one-on-one offensive players in the country, and we always think we have the best one-on-one defensive players in the country," Hauber said. "These are the matchups you wait all season for."
Hauber's performance Sunday reflected his steadfast confidence. Isolated
"My skills are much more effective playing one-on-one," Hauber said. "To have coach say to me, OYou just have to worry about Connor Gill,' it really makes my job a lot easier."
Virginia lost its top defenseman, Mark Koontz, early in the first quarter. Already nursing an injured knee, the preseason first-team All-American twisted awkwardly trying to defend Duke attackman Alex Lieske. Lieske scored on the play, and Koontz limped off to watch the rest of the contest from the sidelines.
"For us not to take advantage of that [would have been] a disservice to our guys," Pressler said. "If there is a weakness out there we have to exploit it."
Although acknowledging the difficulty in losing his defensive leader, Starsia made no excuses for Duke's 14-goal outburst.
"It was a little unsettling to see it happen, and I think it did affect the defense, but it's not a suitable excuse for some of the things we allowed defensively," he said.
The loss of Koontz notwithstanding, Virginia, as expected, appeared the dominant team early on. Most experts had given Duke little chance to upset the No. 1 Cavaliers, particularly after their 15-11 thrashing of the Blue Devils just one week earlier.
Duke, however, did not approach Sunday's contest meekly.
"We try not to listen to any of that online crap, or that press stuff," Regan said. "Nobody thought we could win this in the press world, but every guy in the locker room knew we could win as long as we played smart and played hard."
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